


If You Need A Friend...

by 1f_this_be_madness



Series: A Boy And His Angel - Feathers and Legs [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Adam Milligan Deserves the World, Adam Milligan Lives, Adam-Centric, After 15x19, Awkwardness, Blood and Injury, Deviates From Canon, EMT Adam Milligan, Emergency Medical Technicians, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friendship/Love, Gen, Healthy Relationships, Hugs, I'm a sap and no one can stop me, Is it major character death if one BELIEVES the other is dead?, M/M, Nicknames, Possession, Post-Canon, Questions, Soft Michael (Supernatural), Swearing, Zachariah Being an Asshole (Supernatural)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-22
Updated: 2020-11-22
Packaged: 2021-03-10 08:15:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27670085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1f_this_be_madness/pseuds/1f_this_be_madness
Summary: "I'm sailing right behind - like a bridge over troubled water, I will ease your mind" ~ Paul SimonAfter everything they have been through, why can't they at least have this?Since when does anyone get what they deserve?Well, hopefully, since now.(Or Adam has returned after the final season's nineteenth episode and Jack brought everyone back, which bears thinking about.)
Relationships: Michael & Adam Milligan, Michael/Adam Milligan
Series: A Boy And His Angel - Feathers and Legs [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2030632
Comments: 28
Kudos: 92





	1. Chapter 1

He had been gone, he knows. Left in the middle of one of their conversations, when he was eating at a diner and telling Michael some story he recalled from school days - they made a pact to share at least one happy memory with each other, every day. As long as they are out, together, they want to remain grateful. 

Adam felt that gratitude as he looked at Michael, saw the soft expression in the archangel's eyes as he nodded in silent encouragement for Adam to continue speaking. And then - he doesn't know what happened, but he felt this tearing pain as if he was ... unraveling, and suddenly he was gone and there was nothing.

Until suddenly he was back, spread-eagle on the ground outside where the diner had been; and, he knows even before he tries asking that he is alone.

 _Michael? Feathers, where are you?_ Adam finds himself biting his lower lip, fingernails cutting into his palms as he clenches both hands, body rigid as everything in him is hoping for Michael to return, to talk to him. To just BE here, the way he has been since the Cage. They both made it out, at last, and they've been doing great, together. Adam thumps his head onto the cold dirt and feels grass tickling his cheek as he presses his eyes shut and his body into the ground. _Please,_ he begs. Come back, c'mon, don't leave me here alone.

***

Eventually he rises, limbs stiff and sore from however long he'd laid in that supine position, yelling in his head for Michael to hear. It's nearly nighttime now, and as far as he knows there aren't buses that come out here to little diners. At least not this one. And he still hasn't gotten the hang of the newest technology, those ridiculously big apple cellphones. And the way so many things are online now, got to have wireless internet and ... really he feels tired just thinking about all of it. Tired, and numb.

If he can find a place to sleep tonight maybe he can figure out what happened, somehow, though he knows for damn sure he's not asking a hunter. No way. He'll do his own research.

But he prays, also; no matter what his beliefs were before, now, after everything they have been through, he prays to Michael.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is kind of a drabble in chapters because I got an idea (yes I've jumped back into writing about Supernatural, whoo boy). I just think ADAM AND MICHAEL DESERVE NICE THINGS
> 
> Also the song "Bridge Over Troubled Water" is so them to me.
> 
> Always keep fighting, everybody. Love is love.
> 
> Comments appreciated <3


	2. Chapter 2

Adam moves and moves and keeps right on moving. He eventually gets to a town with a hospital and works to find a way to enroll in classes for emergency medical services. He cannot stomach the thought of going back to medical school, of forcing himself to stay in one place for six years without doing anything outright for people. He has to work, to provide care, to get out of his own head. Because it - he feels so empty without another presence sharing his space, his burdens, trading thought for thought.

He keeps on praying, though, as well. Even just ... thinking hard about something he'd like to tell Michael, something that would be interesting or fascinating to the other; some aspect or facet of humanity not so far seen by the archangel in close quarters. 

He keeps on doing so, trying to move forward. It takes weeks. Months. 

*** 

It is currently month six. Only reason Adam has not broken down so far from being alone is because of classes. He's pushed himself to become a paramedic - to the point he's concluded everything during the fifth month instead of needing six and on the day of the test expects a sense of relief, accomplishment; of some sort of triumph. 

He clears his throat, bounces on his heels and is out with (in his head of course): _Michael, I did it. I have my license to be an EMT. Yeah, I know it's nowhere close to miracles, and people can help other people without taking a test, but... I have. I just... I wanted to tell you. I wanted you to know._

Adam bows his head, feeling cold. He's always wearing multiple layers, now; cannot seem to get warm. Not since he returned and Michael had gone. He gets smiles and claps on the back from his classmates, a group plans to go out and celebrate passing the test. "We're technicians!" He crows. Because, no matter that his happiness hasn't reached the very heart of him without Michael, happiness is happiness, right?

One of the other techs, who'd been acting as a tutor for the rest of them, detaches from the remainder of the excited group and approaches Adam. He schools his features into something other than desperation, as he has learned to over these long months. Doesn't do for people to see him in a janitor closet having a panic attack, even if he'd been crying out in his head every damn day to keep right on hearing _nothing_ and -

"Hey Adam," greets him.

He swallows, blinks, strives to smile. "Hey."

"Congratulations on your victory," a beaming grin that he soaks up the sight of, as he doesn't know the last time he himself has felt such deep, real happiness. Pathetic. Actually, he does, to the precise moment on the day, down to the very words he'd been speaking to his angel, and that is even MORE pathetic. Come on, get it together, Adam. "You made it through! Any idea where you want to go from here?"

To find Michael. That's idiotic, but it's the first thought that comes to mind. Never mind that since he's an angel, if he was anywhere on Earth he'd have found Adam by now. Which means he's either gone, or with God, or...

Adam shakes himself back to the moment and smiles, lifting his shoulders. "Not sure. Wherever I'm needed most, I guess."

"See, Adam, that's why I like you." Clapping his shoulder and making him startle, hand moves immediately away. "Sorry!"

"'S okay," he mumbles, rolling his shoulders. _Get it together, Milligan, come on._

"Anyway, you're a good one. Out to help others first, not just acting like it. Putting people before yourself." Adam's abdomen clenches at those words with searing pain and bitterness because yeah, he knows what it's like when others put themselves before him, before anyone. And he had learned to live and grown with someone who took care of him. If he can provide even a fraction of that sort of comfort -

He really has to stay present, Adam thinks. He really shouldn't be floating off into thoughts about a time, a place, a being who isn't here now, who has not returned....

"We've got a few openings at the hospital, trauma and EMTs. If you're interested I'll put your name on my boss's radar, how's that sound?"

"That sounds great," Adam manages. Manners. He still has those. "Thank you so much."

He allows himself to smile, to be taken to a restaurant and plied with food, to try and be proud of something he has accomplished on his own.

Yet he cannot fully shake free the fact that he is now alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Adam misses Michael so much, but he's trying.
> 
> I do in fact have somewhere I'm going with this, I promise!
> 
> Comments appreciated <3


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blood and injury described below, Adam uses his training

Adam has kept clear of hunting these long months alone.

He knows so much more about the unnatural world than he ever thought or wanted to, and learned enough from two short visits with hunters to know he has no great wish to come into any more contact with them on his rounds. No thanks.

Of course, many of them don't seem to be in the business or mindset of asking anyone for help, never mind calling ambulances. But this town has a lot of back roads, and their hospital is one of the largest in the vicinity, so his beat extends to surrounding places.

The first time Adam sees a person, splayed in grass with ragged burns scorching the earth around them and ragged coughs expelling viscera, he remembers - and nearly rebels at the memory - slashing through his insides a hemorrhage by way of an awful, awful angel. He cannot tell if this particular occurrence is angelic at first glance, or otherwise; hates the sharp pang of hope that it could be, because that way Michael may yet somehow return -

But Adam parks his rig and unlocks the back of the ambulance, opening the door and leaping free with a backboard and tools to start an intravenous line, his fellow emergency technicians following. He also, never mentioning except to say he's a sucker for salt, keeps a container of sodium in the glove compartment. It's one of his idiosyncrasies that he's sure his fellow techs joke about, but he's got that and silver and a few more things. Just because he steers clear doesn't mean he is not ready. 

As now, he shakes some salt out in a ragged circle around the victim, just in case. He drops beside and tugs on gloves. "Hi," he looks at the clammy skin and dilated eyes of this writhing person. "I'm here to help, just hang on with me, okay?" 

There's a gasp, a nod. "I was - I couldn't move," bloody spittle gargles in throat and mouth with a gasp. "For ages... It's like I was - grabbed and I - I couldn't -" shuddering.

"Okay, it's okay. You're okay now. I'm going to put a collar on your head to keep it still before I can get you on this backboard and assess your injuries, okay?" Holding her head steady, Adam gently lifts it in his hands, tearing open the Velcro on the front of the foam and cloth collar before slipping it around her neck, tightening to be snug but not too tight. "There," his eyes crinkle as he offers a thumbs up before shifting the board beside and then shoving under whilst biting down on his lower lip as the patient cries out. "Okay, we're good. You're going to get to the hospital, and -" At the way she is stretched on the board, Adam can ascertain a little bit more about her possible injuries. "There's some bleeding, I need you to tell me what hurts," taking his first two fingers, Adam presses gently on the center of the abdomen and then on either side, checking breath and pulse with his other hand. "This? Is it this?" At whimpers, he assesses the paleness of skin and feels a sort of swelling that indicates likelihood of internal bleeding. He swabs her arm and starts an i.v. line to use with saline once they're in the ambulance again. His fellow techs come with a bag and stethoscope to check for the sound of liquid in her lungs.

"I couldn't - couldn't stop...they had control of me, and I -" her eyes are terrified, she clutches Adam's arm. " _I COULDN'T STOP HIM!_ " 

Adam catches sight of wide eyes and he's sure there will be some mention of psychological issues when they get back. He knows there are some, but they are different than any of his colleagues would have the knowledge or ability to point out. He doubts any of them have dealt with possession from angels, ghouls, or demons. So he takes hold of her hand and looks into her eyes, other hand carefully keeping her face steady so she does not torque her neck even with the guard. "I understand, but he's gone and you're safe now. You're safe now, okay? Let's get her up," he looks to his colleagues. "One, two -"

They've lifted her on the board and get her into the back of the ambulance, plugging in the line as they also have to work and stop bleeding. "Put pressure on her abdomen, I'm thinking it's spleen," 

A call is made on the radio as Adam leaps out of the truck and runs round to drive. "We have a female presenting, mid-twenties. Limited visible lacerations but has rapid heart rate and lowering pulse. Suspected internal bleeding in the abdominal cavity, possibly from a ruptured spleen -" Screeching tires follow Adam throwing himself into the driver's seat and flooring the accelerator. 

Even if this is a not-unnatural form of threat (though if it was a car accident, where was the car? Why was she dumped in the middle of a field without any apparent footprints leading to or away from where they'd seen her body?) Adam feels sick. His palms are sweaty, clenched around the steering wheel as he drives towards the hospital. If he thinks too hard about the words the girl said, about they, them, him... How her body had been taken over... Adam shakes his head violently and catches sight in the now-gathering dusk of a person - dark jeans, red shirt, wide eyes - standing and then apparently hurtling across the road. 

Adam swears and slams on the brakes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like to think Adam would be attuned to/adept at cleaning up hunting messes - or trying his hardest to do so, at least
> 
> Comments appreciated <3


	4. Chapter 4

_"Shit!"_ Adam slams the brakes as he sees this flash of movement, and of light - a flare from the setting sun, he'd think, except there are trees all along the road and there aren't any vehicles near enough to have flares off side mirrors. He'd been just about to put the lights and sirens on, actually his wrist nudges the lever in this moment and spinning lights and shrill alarum bells almost lend a comical aspect to his rig's wheels spinning. 

But he stops it, hearing a thud as that utterly idiotic person seems to have JUMPED - Adam's hands are shaking as he unclips his seatbelt, gasping through the radio into the back ("All good here, getting the patient stable") before slamming his boot into the door to get off excess energy and push hands through his dark-blond hair with a snarl as he opens the door and leaps out.

"This person better live so he can learn not to be such an IDIOT by jumping in front of AMBULANCES -" rounding the front of the rig and seeing on the ground a dark-haired head peering up, hazel eyes squinting at him, Adam stops in his tracks as a slight uptick of the person's mouth precedes a quiet

"Hello, Adam."

***

Adam feels as though he is having an out-of-body experience.

No. This is nuts, this can't be happening, not after all this time, there's just no way - but a blue-white glow catches in and fades from those eyes, and matted curling dark hair over cracked asphalt means only a certain type of strength. Adam sways, reaches out and catches hold of the front grille and its temperature tears into his skin even through the glove on his hand. He hears roaring in his ears and has no idea how loud or softly he says

_"... Michael?"_

Every part of him is screaming 'this is it, you've cracked, there's nO WAY' but in that confounded dry way his angel has, that Adam loves so much "...Yes. It seems you weren't expecting me," and Adam scoffs.

"No, I wasn't. You - you asshole! It's been - almost a year, you were - _gone_ , and I -"

Attempting to sit upright, Michael groans and winces. "You had gone first," he says in a manner likely attempting to be sharp, but probing at his own head causes him instead of continuing to speak in a biting tone to wince in pain, and Adam's instincts kick in.

The paramedic kneels to get the other to stop moving. "Let me check your head," he bites his lip, puts his fingers to the other's curls, hands steady even as his voice is trembling, as rising off the other is that familiar almost...thrumming energy that he would be able to recognize anywhere. 

_Michael._

This doesn't make any sense. Even the, what he thinks now was a possession doesn't make sense. "How -" Adam's voice is so rough and small he has to clear his throat to speak again, not quite managing to look Michael in the eyes. It is so strange to be separate from him, truly; to feel another's flesh and blood coating his fingertips. Adam fumbles out some gauze and applies pressure to the back of Michael's head. "How'd you get here? Get alive again, I...I just k-knew that you," voice cracking, Adam focuses on the seeping blood and mumbles about Michael's stupidity. "...I thought you were _dead_ , you idiot. For good."

Michael's eyes track Adam's, and his tone is gentle as he inclines his upper body and says "Yet still you prayed to me."

Adam stiffens, hands freezing. His head snaps up. "You heard?"

"I did."

"This whole time?"

"Yes."

"Yet you didn't even - you didn't answer me!" Adam splutters, cheeks reddening. "Not even at my worst when I -" he ducks his head, pressing lips to the cloth of his scrubs as he tries to cease shaking before everything in him threatens to shudder apart. He has been alone all this time. Having _waited._ "You're a bastard," he spits out, though it isn't completely full of heat. The trembling croak of his voice gives him away. He cups his hand to Michael's head over the gauze and lunges forward.

And Michael catches Adam in an embrace, strong still despite the ravages of the road and of his time gone that he shall have to speak of soon. He knows he will, and that Adam will ask and keep asking. He has always been a curious human being.

But for now Michael wraps his arms around the other, breathing him in, and Adam does the same; shaking and holding on. Pressing together so tightly as would, as they are two halves of a whole.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This reunion seems super convenient but I promise Michael is going to explain - Adam won't let him off the hook until he does, haha
> 
> Hope you're enjoying this, comments appreciated <3


	5. Chapter 5

Aftermath of the abrupt stop is a blur; Adam somehow gets Michael into the cab of the ambulance beside him and drives the rest of the way to the hospital. He signs off for the patient in back of the rig to go with the trauma team, and talks the attending on duty into letting him patch up the second patient himself. He mutters to Michael about them needing to know what his current vessel's name is, for records (even as it stings to think that the angel has another vessel now _that's ridiculous, stop it -_ ), and then Michael fumbles out a wallet with an apparently-legitimate ID card.

And if Adam is not hallucinating any of this (which is entirely possible, honestly; he's had a string of more than twelve-hour shifts, several in a row, for as long as he has worked with this hospital) it's hard to believe how long it has been, and at the same time a mere fraction of the amount of time they spent in the Cage. But Michael, as he sits with head bowed for Adam to card and clump his hair as far from the cut in his head as possible and thus stitch skin together "You aren't healing," he murmurs too low for any typical human ears to hear.

Yet of course this is not a typical human being, it's Michael. 

"I am not," the archangel says evenly. "It took...much to get back to this plane of existence." His shoulders are tensing and his lips are pressed tightly together. So much so they are bloodless. Yet, though Adam cannot see the latter, he lowers his arms to wrap them carefully around Michael's torso, resting his chin on the other being's shoulder.

"Well you're here now," Adam whispers, and their closeness, the real feeling of cloth and skin and the weight of life that exists now for and between the both of them settles their bodies, allowing ease and calm to reign. 

Adam finishes stitching up Michael's wound for him and checks the rest of his body for contusions or other injuries. He looks intently at the archangel, the messy black curls that cover the tops of his ears and flare over the collar of his shirt on the back of his neck; there is something stiff and strong in his stance, even sitting or lying down, that is as wholly Michael as the feeling of him. It makes the human smile, he cannot help himself. 

Yet his smile slips as he asks "... You'll still be here when my shift ends and I can come get you, right?"

***

Michael is still there.

For one, he will not leave Adam unless the other requests it, or he is forced, as occurred when his Father wiped out so many creatures of Earth, humans and birds and beasts alike. And two, he has yet to explain how in fact he has returned, which is an enigma in itself. 

The archangel does not miss the bouncing of Adam's feet upon the floor before he sticks his head into the room and sucks in air, a smile of relieved joy filling his face, showing teeth and brightening eyes that seemed as exhausted as they had at any given moment in the Cage. Said sight tugs at Michael's innards in a painfully familiar way. 

Adam's brows draw together as he goes to the archangel, who had dealt with another person removing his i.v. before Adam arrives, coat over one shoulder, still in navy blue garb with an elbow cocked as he holds keys. "You ready to blow this popsicle stand?" He asks in his dry way. Something hitches within the angel, however, as he speaks thus; Adam has all these things, he realizes - a job, a vehicle, a _life_ without Michael. That painful pull tugs at the angel's chest yet again, and he swallows with a sharp nod.

Adam signs him out, the angel watching his corded hand curled round a writing implement, the neatly knotted laces of his boots, how he shrugs muscled _healthy_ limbs into his coat and waves, nods to the nurses on duty that call goodnight to him. He waves to the guards at the door with smiles and nods for them as well.

He has so much, and that makes Michael freeze. His wings flare outward in their different plane of existence, but his feet skid to a halt on asphalt in the - parking lot, place where Adam has his own vehicle, surely. "Michael?" That familiar voice is confused, with concern entrenched in it. "What're you stopping for, Feathers? Is something wrong?"

Michael wants to laugh, to bark out in bitterness because of course; he is the something wrong, barging into Adam's carefully ordered life after being gone so long. "I should have answered you," he says instead, dropping his chin to his chest and eyes to the ground. His shoulders slump. "I should have...found a way to answer your prayers to me."

Oh. "Is that what's bothering you?" A swish of fabric precedes Adam moving closer, standing before the other and reaching out to him. Michael shrinks away. "Hey, it's... it's okay. I mean, sure I was pissed off, but it was mostly because I was worried. I didn't know where you went, but I guess it was...a pretty bad place." Adam swallows, his hand touching Michael's and fingers curling around his to squeeze. "You don't have to talk about it, I'm just. I'm glad you're back." Michael risks a peek up and sees Adam looking at him with a soft little smile. His voice seems to catch in his throat. "Really, really glad."

That does it for Michael, and he lurches forward, a thickness in his throat. He closes his eyes just as his head connects with Adam's, and he presses his forehead to the other's, their noses brush as their breath mingles. "As am I, Adam," Michael gulps as Adam still clutches his hand, and the angel lifts his free one to open and curl his fingers around the base of Adam's skull, gently cupping the nape of his neck. 

Roaring through his thoughts up till now has been the expanse of the Empty; how he had heard Adam's words even in its depths and how they had kept him awake, he still doesn't know. How some power ignited, spread to others there, and they all clamoured to get out, to leave and return. As his only all-encompassing goal was to come back to - for Adam.

And at last he had come, bursting with all the vestigial power he had left to crash into the vehicle of the very person he wanted, needed, yearned to see; the being he swore to protect, and promises not to leave. Michael had promised himself such, at least; and standing with Adam now he makes that promise. 

He will not leave him again.

Perhaps, as the pair at last shifts, moving together to head for Adam's car, it is possible to get what one deserves. 

Or at least, to find what one needs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... and then they go back to wherever Adam's living and cuddle on his couch or something, the end
> 
> Thank you for reading, these two are the absolute sweetest. I hope you liked my short take on them. Feel free to let me know if you're interested in reading more :)
> 
> Story title is a lyric from "Bridge Over Troubled Water" written by Paul Simon
> 
> Comments appreciated <3


End file.
